The UIC Safety Platform and Human Factors Competence Centre will be staging a seminar on Human Factors and Technological Innovation on 23 and 24 June next.

Technological innovation is ever present on the rail landscape. The railways have been and continue to be a formidable driving force, paving the way for progress which can only be truly realised if users are well-prepared and tools tailored to context. Other technologies are emerging and becoming widespread in society – the railways must adapt to these developments and mitigate the resulting risks. The seminar will examine several of these technologies from the human, organisational and social points of view. UIC will seek to demonstrate that these aspects must be integrated in order to take full advantage of such innovations. A series of examples relating to different professions within the rail sector will be presented over the course of the seminar. The “system” dimension will be the focus of particular attention as many innovations impact on several parts of the system in parallel.

Speakers at the seminar will include engineers, Human Factors specialists and experts from the medical sector representing several European countries. By sharing their experiences with participants and presenting progress in various areas they will contribute to the multidisciplinary backdrop to this seminar serving to foster intercultural railway dialogue. The seminar, which will be open by Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, UIC Director General, will be structured in three parts:

Part 1 – Tuesday 23 June from 13.00 – 17.00: ERTMS “European Rail Traffic Management System” and CNR (Centralised Network Control). These major projects are based on technological innovations which are revolutionising the control-command system. Cases of deployment in the field to date are bringing about a revolution of some of the key railway professions:
• Professions in operations: dispatcher, signaller, driver, shunting agent,
• Maintenance professions relating to both signalling and rolling stock.

Part 2 – Wednesday 24 June from 9.00 – 13.00: Information technology Information and communication technology (mobile phones, the internet, electronic games, etc.) have flooded and transformed our world over recent years. The same is true of the rail sector, which is both enduring and making use of such developments. The role technology plays in the lives of rail operator personnel staff is changing rapidly. Are these technologies assets or do they pose safety risks?

Part 3 - Wednesday 24 June from 14.00 to 16.00: Sustainable development Sustainable development is henceforth omnipresent on the rail agenda. One of the pillars underpinning this priority area is that of innovations, or even technological revolutions…but also cultural evolutions or revolutions. Key challenges lie ahead in the field of human and social sciences to ensure the success of sustainable development applied to the rail sector.